Filenews 18 August 2022
Based on the results of the Survey on Income and Living Conditions 2021, with reference to the financial year 2020, 17.3% of the population or 154,000 people were at Risk of Poverty or Social Exclusion, according to the Statistical Service of Cyprus.
The relevant AROPE indicator is the main indicator for monitoring the European Union's 2030 target of poverty and social exclusion.
More specifically, 17.3% of the population lived in households with disposable income below the poverty line or lived in households with severe material and social deprivation or lived in households with a very low work intensity index.
The index shows a slight improvement compared to the previous year when it was at 17.6%, continuing the downward trend of recent years. The improvement is reflected exclusively in the percentage of men (15.8%), since the percentage of women remained at about the same level (18.7%) as in 2020. Over time, women have been kept in a worse position than men.
At-Risk of Poverty Index (AROP)
The percentage of the population at Risk of Poverty, i.e. their disposable income was below the At-Risk-of-Poverty Monetary Threshold, showed a small decrease, reaching 13.8% compared to 14.3% in 2020. The highest percentage ever reached by this index was in 2015 with 16.2%. The At-Risk-of-Poverty Threshold remained almost at the same levels between 2021 and 2020, in 2021 at €10,011 for single-person households compared to €10,022 in 2020 and at €21,024 for households with two adults and 2 dependent children, compared to €21,047 in 2020.
Severe Material and Social Deprivation Index (SMSD))
The percentage of the population with Severe Material and Social Deprivation, i.e. the percentage of the population deprived due to economic difficulties of at least 7 out of 13 types of material and social deprivation, decreased to 2.6% in 2021 compared to 3.2% in 2020. The types of material and social deprivation consist of 7 at the household level, e.g. financial inability of the household to repay its electricity/water bills or loans or could not have sufficient heating in the winter or cope with an extraordinary but necessary expense, etc., and 6 on a personal level, e.g. financial inability of the person to spend a small amount of money on himself/herself or to participate in leisure activities or meet with friends or relatives for drinks/food at least 1 time per month, etc.
Very Low Work Intensity Index (LWI))
The percentage of the population aged 0-64 who lived in households with a very low Labour Intensity Index, i.e. adults in the household worked last year less than 20% of their total capacity, shows a small increase in 2021, reaching 5,6% compared to 5,3% in 2020.
Economic Inequality
The average annual net disposable income of the household for 2021, with reference financial year 2020, was €34,227, presenting an increase of 1,1% compared to the previous year when it was €33,862.
Economic inequality is expressed, mainly, in the index of distribution of income in quintiles (S80/S20) and the indicator of unequal distribution of income, Gini coefficient. In 2021, these indicators remained at approximately the same levels compared to the previous year. In particular, the S80/S20 index, which examines the share of income of the richest 20% of the population to the income of the poorest 20% of the population, reached 4.2% in 2021. That is, the share of income of the richest 20% of the population was 4.2 times higher than the income of the poorest 20% of the population, compared to 4.3 in 2020. The Gini rate in 2021 reached 29.4% compared to 29.3% in 2020.
CNA
